Evidence
Evidence Sharing
Hello all – if anyone has any evidence from this past year on agriculture that they wouldn’t mind sharing with the community I would be happy to host it here on the evidence page. My experience has been that one of the best teaching tools for new debaters is to see existing evidence that was [...]
Research Sites added
Just wanted to update everyone that as we’ve started jumping into the 2012 Ag topic I’ve started adding a few great sites I’ve come across on the research page. If you have any great sites you’ve found so far please post them in the comments and I’ll add them to the research page.
2012 Farm Bill
It appears that the House has recessed without passing the 2012 Farm Bill. As you start to do research on potential cases for this year be very aware of the potential for your case to lose inherency if the 2012 Farm Bill, once passed, dramatically changes policy. CONGRESS is now on its five-week August break, [...]
“Organic Agriculture” and/or “Sustainable Agriculture”
I always prefer to start with definitions whenever a new topic is released. One of the things I like about this topic is that the terms appear to be well defined in actual LAW which given the United Stated Federal Government as the actor makes a good case for the use of an official government [...]
Tariffs on Solar Panels
Big update on US-China Trade Relations in regards to solar panels today. The United States Commerce Department said Tuesday it would impose tariffs on solar panels imported from China after concluding that the Chinese government provided illegal export subsidies to manufacturers there. While this is still breaking nuclear war has yet to break out… =)
World Trade Organization
It’s very likely that you will be covering the World Trade Organization (WTO) throughout the upcoming year. I found this Congressional Research Service (CRS – great evidence source!) on “World Trade Organization (WTO): Issues in the Debate on Continued U.S. Participation” and thought there may be some interesting cards to cut on both running a [...]
Starter Packet for 2011-12 Topic
I attach here a starter packet for teams looking to begin practicing. It is likely of lower quality than the larger teams already have, but it should allow small and/or new teams to start practicing right away. It includes a currency manipulation aff (donated by Danny), some specific negative against currency manipulation, a specific DA against currency [...]
Subnational Cooperation
I first want to start by thanking Kern for coming on as an author on SoCal-LD.net! Kern is entering his third and final year of LD Debate for Rice University. I’m excited to hear Kern’s view points from a different circuit in NFA-LD. Regarding the ability to counterplan I think there is a growing body [...]
NDCA Open Evidence Project
I wanted to remind everyone that the National Debate Coaches Association runs the “Open Evidence Project” which aims to release thousands of files from high school debate camps to the debate community. While a lot of the files are obviously not relevant for us this year (although if your case deals with space it may [...]
Protectionism
You’ll likely see more than one disadvantage on protectionism this year. Here is an interesting publication from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace arguing that protectionism is simply not being embraced by countries (ie, no link) from May 2011. That would probably post-date a lot of the disadvantage which would give you a real leg [...]
China tries to put brakes on overheated economy
China tries to put brakes on overheated economy. Interesting Article from the LA Times on China’s economy.
3 More Affirmative Cases
Thanks to Tony Liu (El Camino) for sending in three example affirmative cases from last year. Bipolar 1AC (PDF) Polytherapy 1AC Revised PTSD 1AC Comm Judge PTSD 1AC Revised You’ll notice that he sent in two versions of the PTSD affirmative – one specifically designated for Comm (communication) judges. I’d be interested to hear if [...]
